AWARD-APR

Apr 12

Written By Ubåt

Addressing Extreme Weather Related Diarrheal Disease Risks in the Asia-Pacific Region

Summary

Ongoing climate change is posing unprecedented threat to public health across the globe. We have witnessed increases in frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme weather events that pose direct threats to our communities. There is a scientific consensus that such extreme weather events will continue to increase in frequency in the foreseeable future in response to ongoing climate change. This raises an important question: how do we adapt to these new set of hazards as a society? This question is even more pressing among communities that lack the capacity to adapt to these new threats.

The AWARD-APR team is working to address this issue and enhance community resilience against the threats of climate change through development of an early warning system for diarrheal diseases that are tied to extreme weather events. Initially, the AWARD-APR team will focus on better characterizing location specific diarrheal disease risk associated with extreme weather events. Subsequently, the team will use this information, along with seasonal to sub-seasonal (S2S) weather forecast to develop diarrheal disease outlook with 4-12 weeks lead time. Such outlook will enable public health practitioners, local/regional health departments, and community groups to anticipate and respond to such threats, thereby minimizing public health burden.

Principal partners

University of Maryland, USA
Lund University, Sweden
Chungyuan Christian University, Taiwan

Countries and regions involved: Chinese Taipei, India, Vietnam, Nepal, China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam

Timeframe of the project

2020 – 2023

Funding source

Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action Climate, Environment and Health (National Science Foundation, USA; Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), Sweden; Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan)